I think it's an interesting marketing gimmick by Delta/Song. However, it's not clear how will they evaluate which "nice" passenger deserves to get the ticket. I guess it's left to the F/A's discretion.
"I never apologize! I am sorry, but that's the way it is!" - Homer Simpson
AATripleSevens From United States of America, joined Apr 2004, 22 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (9 years 1 month 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 2767 times:
As a way to build customer loyalty and to help ensure good passenger behavior, this is a great idea. If I knew that ass-kissing (like the stuff in that Continental commercial) could get me a free tix, I might consider being even more accommodating. They're trying to pitch themselves as a newer, friendlier airline and this fits that image.
Financially, its boneheaded--so it's a good thing the program is limited to a few months.
What about vouchers for $25 or $50 instead? Whenever I've had one its almost as if it was burning a hole in my pocket--just had to fly somewhere.
Still, I think the minority of genuinely surly people who fly won't give a damn whether they can win a free tix or not--they'll be a pain in the ass regardless.
InnocuousFox From United States of America, joined Dec 2003, 2805 posts, RR: 16 Reply 3, posted (9 years 1 month 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 2675 times:
"Financially, its boneheaded--so it's a good thing the program is limited to a few months"
Not really. You will generally have empty seats on an A/C, so giving one away is nothing. The only way you lose is if someone was going to be flying anyway and decides to use it. In many cases, this is a person who wouldn't necessarily be flying again anytime soon and so you aren't "losing" a sale by giving it to them for free.
Also, there is the marketing aspect. The free tickets may very well be made up for by the additional people who may fly Song just because they think they are interested in the possibility of getting a freebee later. That is a sale that wasn't there before that the program has GENERATED.
Dave Mark - Intrinsic Algorithm - Reducing the world to mathematical equations!
AATripleSevens From United States of America, joined Apr 2004, 22 posts, RR: 1 Reply 4, posted (9 years 1 month 1 day 23 hours ago) and read 2609 times:
InnocuousFox,
It is boneheaded if they are in the habit of filling every seat on most of their flights like JetBlue regularly does (which Song is trying to compete with). That's abandoning potential revenue, a very bad practice on a large scale. In principle, giving away free tix is bad for business--any business--that can fill seats without resorting to giveaways. Still, the scale of this is likely so small its not likely to leave a mark.
It might create goodwill, but they've already spent loads of dough on promoting the brand. Just makes me think of when (now defunct) internet companies were coming up with great promotion ideas...which is great, except for the fact that they never turned a profit!
I'd like to know what the ticket restrictions are (if any)--like if the redemption value can't exceed a certain amount when booking travel (a common condition used on airline travel vouchers).
And what about my voucher idea? Has anyone every tried anything like this to your (or anyone's) knowledge?
N102daman From United States of America, joined Nov 2003, 155 posts, RR: 3 Reply 5, posted (9 years 1 month 1 day 22 hours ago) and read 2526 times:
I'm no marketing Expert but this sounds like a pretty good idea to me. The passenger has already purchased a ticket on a Song flight. It encourages the passenger to fly Song again. From what I understand most passengers that return travel on an airline will return again and be repeat customers. There also are probably many restrictions for the free tickets. I also imagine that there will be a large amount of those tickets that go unused. This to me would be is an exciting promotion. Fly Song, be nice, and have a chance at winning a free ticket to use on another song flight between September and November of 2004.
"Fly Widget Fly"
"Keep Singing Song"
"Service and Hospitality from the Heart." (C. E. Woolman, Delta airlines first CEO and founder.)
4everRC From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 322 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (9 years 1 month 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 2417 times:
Good business or bad business, I am all for something that tries to bring back the pre-deregulation days when planes were NOT full of crabby, whiny people.
LH423 From Canada, joined Jul 1999, 6501 posts, RR: 55 Reply 9, posted (9 years 1 month 1 day 21 hours ago) and read 2343 times:
One thing that you must realize here, is that the tickets are valid during on the of the slowest times of travel for Song's core routes: Florida. Travel to Florida is at its slowest between late-August to early-November. By early-to-mid-November, the Snowbirds start packing it in and heading south, hence the reason that the promotion ends then, and after that you head into the holiday season where flights are packed, and then after that comes Spring Break. So, really what they're trying to do is entice people onto their planes over the Summer (also a traditionally slow period for Florida flights) with the potential of winning a free ticket later on. While it ultimately will in all practicality not be successful in getting Song additional traffic, it may get them a bit during an otherwise slow part of the year.
LH423
« On ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux » Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
WidgetBoi From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 1432 posts, RR: 21 Reply 11, posted (9 years 1 month 1 day 20 hours ago) and read 2220 times:
MidnightMike From United States of America, joined Mar 2003, 2892 posts, RR: 16 Reply 12, posted (9 years 1 month 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 2060 times:
Well, that is a novel idea, I guess when people get off the airplane they are going to be pissed if they were nice the whole flight and they do not receive their free ticket, oh well, people are never happy.
Richierich From United States of America, joined Nov 2000, 4036 posts, RR: 6 Reply 13, posted (9 years 1 month 1 day 5 hours ago) and read 1953 times:
To me, this reeks of desperation. It is not that different than AA's buy-two-get-one-free offer of a couple of months ago (matched by other airlines) from BOS & NYC. It is all an effort to bring more people on board but will probably not bring in much extra revenue.
I am not denying that it is a great marketing ploy but marketing costs money. The real question regarding generating cash comes down to (a) reeling in a passenger that might have chosen a rival airline to fly because of this offer or (b) making a sale to a passenger who hadn't planned to fly but decided to solely because of the offer. Does this offer accomplish either of those objectives? Probably not, at least not enough to negate the amount spent promoting this peculiar stunt.
This is something desperate airlines do. If Song had extremely high load factors, could they do this? No - that would be suicide. The redemption period is quite narrow (one can only guess at Song's load factors for September and October), and a lot of the winners probably won't even bother collecting their free trip because the flights they would actually want to take will be blacked-out. This does not sound like a recipe for repeat business to me.
Scottb From United States of America, joined Jul 2000, 6373 posts, RR: 34 Reply 14, posted (9 years 1 month 1 day 4 hours ago) and read 1913 times:
Everyone's load factors between the Northeast and Florida are relatively weak from September through mid-November. You can get some great travel deals on those routes in those months. It's just the nature of the business -- the weather in the Notheast hasn't yet gone to He!!, the kids are back in school, and people haven't come down with cabin fever yet. Even jetBlue sees its traffic fall off in September and October as compared to the summer and spring!
If Song/Delta has the right set of capacity controls/restrictions on the tickets, the cost is likely to be limited to the incremental revenue from those ticket recipients who would have traveled anyway during those months. If the marketing of the promotion is limited to a few press releases and interviews, the marketing expense is minimal for what amounts to free advertising in the press.
I guess your viewpoint on this depends on which flavor of Kool-Aid you prefer -- the Blue or Lime Green. The jetBlue zealots around here would be oooohing and ahhhhing over what an amazingly innovative idea this was if jetBlue had come up with it, proclaiming that this was just another way that JetBlue was bringing civility back to air travel. Instead it's called "desperation" or "boneheaded" because the competition came up with it.
OttoPylit From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 15, posted (9 years 1 month 17 hours ago) and read 1753 times:
ScottB,
It only took me to read one post of yours to know that you know what your talking about and one of the few that get the big picture. Good job on covering the purpose and possible results of this promotion. Welcome to my respected users list.
JGPH1A From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 18, posted (9 years 1 month 12 hours ago) and read 1630 times:
The press articles indicated that these freebies were given to Song FA's to hand out at their discretion - what's the bet suddenly all the Song cabin attendant boyf's/girlf's/best buddies suddenly become REAL nice on their Song flights and are showered with freebies ?
MD80Nut From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 873 posts, RR: 10 Reply 19, posted (9 years 1 month 2 hours ago) and read 1496 times:
Does that mean we'll see passengers volunteering to help the F/As during the flight?
"C'mon, let me help you with that safety demonstration. You just sit in my seat, can I recline it for you? How about a pillow? What would you like to watch on the PTV? Can I push that cart for you? Here, let me distribute the pretzels for you."
Sorry, it's Friday afternoon and I'm in a smartass mood!
NonRevKing From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 20, posted (9 years 4 weeks 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 1415 times:
To me, this reeks of desperation
Oh, of course it would! But take this at face value, would an airline that "will be gone in three months" be introducing a new marketing scheme? If Song is so dead in the water, why bother?
a lot of the winners probably won't even bother collecting their free trip because the flights they would actually want to take will be blacked-out
Another masterful stroke of deception by RichieRich. The reality is there are no black out dates for the free tickets.
Is anything that brings positive press and attention to an airline a bad thing? Is anything that encourages and awards manners and basic human caring a bad thing? Only the most negative in society would have a problem with this.
The jetBlue zealots around here would be oooohing and ahhhhing over what an amazingly innovative idea this was if jetBlue had come up with it, proclaiming that this was just another way that JetBlue was bringing civility back to air travel. Instead it's called "desperation" or "boneheaded" because the competition came up with it.
DAL763 From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 21, posted (9 years 4 weeks 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 1409 times:
I flew on one of the Song planes once from KJFK to KATL and I was not impressed. Now I always try to get on the real Delta planes because they have the First Class or sometimes even the Business Elite on the 763.
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